


Three Winters Cold

by inlovewithnight



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-08-30
Updated: 2006-08-30
Packaged: 2017-10-15 21:42:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithnight/pseuds/inlovewithnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Fic about Six (the model number, not the specific character, and how confusing is that, anyway?), set in the 40 years when the Cylons were gone.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Three Winters Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Fic about Six (the model number, not the specific character, and how confusing is that, anyway?), set in the 40 years when the Cylons were gone.

Her other selves know sunlight, color and warmth and what they have come to call beauty, in their times among the humans. She studies the memories that are transmitted back Here, seeing what they saw, learning what they learned. As each other self is terminated and destroyed, she takes in its data collection, deconstructs and analyzes, puzzles over the mysteries of the human worlds. She assimilates the new concepts into her own knowledge matrix, and gradually her perception of the very process changes: she _devours_ the memories, _tears them apart_ with her fingernails in search of their _hearts_ , _consumes_ them and _transforms_ them into life-giving strength.

Perhaps she is interpreting those ideas incorrectly. More data is necessary to be sure. But there will be more data, all that she needs and beyond; new generations are being sent out, new missions conceived and adapted, new transmissions flowing in to take apart and reconstruct in the service of God’s will.

She returns to the birthing place, the first place, the warm and alluvial wet where the children rise from their unliving sleeps. The ones that are hers, her other selves, see her face when they open their eyes. She is the first of their line, and it is her duty to greet them, and give them God’s word, and imprint them with their missions.

She remembers her own rising, clawing her way up to the world and being met by the razor-sharp hands of the Others, the beloved cousins, the poor flawed children of humanity who found God’s truth and His service. She came into the world unmarked and warm and new, innocent in the way of empty things. The Others helped her from the pool and their sharp hands tore her flesh; the first sensation she and the other first children learned was pain. It is an important lesson. Even Here, as close to God as they can be, there is still suffering. That will only end when all living creatures know God's will.

She is gentle with the new ones, helping them carefully to their feet, letting them feel the slide of _warmth_ and _cold_ over their flesh before any others. They receive pain soon enough, with everything else she gives them, everything she has taken and considered and learned from all of the other selves who came and went before the one she gives to now. She has attempted to quantify all of that knowledge, to make it useful for them. Only the success or failure of each self’s mission will show if she was successful.

They receive ideas that only exist on the human worlds, not Here-- _beauty_ and _sorrow_ and _laughter_. Some, she gives theories, ideas she is still unsure of and requires them to test. Several individuals receive interpretations of the same idea, and whichever version succeeds is retained for the next cycle. It is a slow process, but the best available. And God will ensure they have sufficient time.

Now, she wishes to investigate this idea of _beauty_ more deeply, in particular the half-formed thought from several lost selves that their own shape, the physical form that God gave to the sixth of His first children, is beautiful. She is uncertain if this beauty has a use. Further experiments are required, investigation of the strange notions and sensations associated with the thoughts and memories. She thinks there is potential there, and it is absolutely too fascinating not to pursue and analyze further. She is _impatient_ (another new idea, not entirely unpleasant, though far less enjoyable than the ones tangent to this _physical beauty_ ) to have the next generation of data.

So are the others. The twelve first children know that their time to acquire and analyze preliminary data is wearing thin. The mass production lines and birthing vats are nearly complete; perhaps another two years time. The automatic transmitters, so that each child’s consciousness and memories can go to a new body without contextualization and filtering by a First, are also nearly ready. She is uncertain about this step in the plan, of permitting strains of consciousness to remain separate instead of pooling together for analysis and correction before being passed on. But such is God’s will, and to challenge it is unthinkable.

Soon the first children will be obsolete. She isn’t sure what will happen then; if the new ones will continue to seek their guidance, or if God will require them to terminate themselves, or if they will be given roles in the plan and chances for rebirth. Only God can say.

She thinks, if she is permitted a preference, that she would like to see the human worlds before she ceases functions. She has absolute loyalty to God, of course, and His plan and all that He has caused to be built Here. ( _Loyalty_ was a difficult concept for all of them to assimilate from the travelers, because what other state could their possibly be? She cannot begin to understand all of the human thoughts. She isn’t certain that she should, or wants to.)

She believes that perhaps she even _loves_ her world and her cause. This _love_ is a powerful concept, one they are striving their utmost to understand and incorporate properly before the children are left on their own. Her world is Here, is home, and her cause is Truth, and in their grey, mechanical precision, they are correct and functional and will never fail her.

But she thinks she would like to know more of beauty, before she is gone.  



End file.
